Trip to Belgium

One of the greatest parts about living overseas is that I have someone to share all this madness with (not including my own husband). One of my best friends, Stevi, is also living overseas with her husband, Luke, while he plays professional basketball in Belgium. Luke and Deividas were roommates at FSU and Stevi and I became such good friends through them that we both served as bridesmaids in each other's weddings while the guys were each other's groomsmen as well. I think Stevi and I have grown even closer as friends the past year as we always relate to one another and share what we're going through over here. We laugh constantly at each other's awkward grocery store experiences, stress out about our husband's games and stats, understand and comfort each other when we are switching teams mid season or are just missing home and most importantly, reap the benefits of being able to travel Europe together.

Last Tuesday I went to Belgium to see Luke & Stevi and their new digs. After feeling like Jennifer Lawrence on the Hunger Games trying to board a Ryan Air Flight (the whole no assigned seats thing really brings out your inner neanderthal and any sort of class or manners is automatically left at the security gate), a quick two hour flight had me landed in Brussels. Luke & Stevi live in a little town called Londerzeel right outside of Brussels. Londerzeel reminded me of a town out of Stepford Wives. Residents are required to sort their trash at home into 4 different trash cans depending on what they are discarding which I'm sure helps the place stay as immaculate as it is. I'm fairly certain Londerzeel has a 0% crime rate and it's filled with a bunch of cute shops and cafes so perfectly constructed out of brick that I began to think they could all be a painted mirage. During my week long trip, we traveled all over Belgium and even went to Amsterdam for a day. Belgium is an amazing country, it's so centrally located that you can get to basically anywhere in Europe in a 2-3 hour train ride. The Belgian people were great, too. They speak a different language depending on what city you're in, and most of them spoke anywhere between 4-6 languages. I was extremely impressed and equally as embarrassed that I'm struggling so hard to learn a second.

On my first day, Stevi and I met one of her new American friends in Brussels. She showed us around the city and we did a little shopping. (Side note: Mannekin Pis is the size of my 5 lb chihuahua.. really expected a large peeing child...biggest let down since needing my binoculars  to see the Mona Lisa at the Louvre). We wrapped our day up by watching one of Luke's games in the city. He won at the last second and it made me realize my fluctuating stress level and inability to contain myself from screaming profanities at the referees goes beyond just watching my husband's games.

Mannekin Piss

 The following day Luke had off so the three of us went to Bruges, a gorgeous little town on the water with a ton of canals. Bruges was one of the highlights of my trip. The buildings were beautiful and everything was so quaint and charming. We also had the most incredible hot chocolate I've ever had in which you dropped in a bowl made of chocolate and filled with chocolate chips inside a cup of hot milk and whisked it yourself. I'm still daydreaming about it.

Bruges, Belgium.. How gorgeous is this city?

Early Friday morning, Stevi and I woke up and took the train to Amsterdam. As great as the public transportation is in Belgium, it's just as confusing. Not realizing our tickets wouldn't tell us where our train changes were and what platforms they were located at, we boarded the train having absolutely no clue where we were going. All I could remember was thinking one of our stops may have been in Rotterdam, and we were both completely ignorant to where the other stop may be. While everyone else boarded the nice leather seats in the car to our right, we went to the left and sat in these bright orange, tweed chairs that looked just like a suit you'd see your grandfather wearing to church in the 70's. Come to find out later by the train employee,  the grandpa suit chairs we were sitting in belonged only to first class passengers and the leather seats were for the second class... go figure. Amazingly enough after finding a nice Belgian girl to help us, we realized where we were supposed to change trains and made it to Amsterdam.

As soon as we got off the train, we were immediately welcomed to the city by the overbearing smell of the famous "coffee shops". We decided to give the Red Light District a few hours to wake-up and get interesting so we headed to the Rijksmuseum first. This is where I first realized my Amsterdam wardrobe may not have been the smartest idea. As I'm walking through the very quiet museum, all I can hear is the sound of my heels and the swishing of my leather pants. Perfect. After checking out the likes of Van Gogh's, Rembrandt's and Vermeer's, we were museumed out and decided to grab some lunch. We did some shopping and explored the city and after loosing both maps, we were faced with the daunting task of asking someone how to find the Red Light District. As it didn't seem really proper to inquire as to which area of the city the prostitutes were located in, I asked a shop attendant which way to the Red Light District as I had to "meet up with a friend there". She stared me down, casting judgement and shame upon me, like I'm sure she has many tourists before, and told me she didn't know. Fantastic, I was forced with again having to ask someone else this embarrassing question. After buying a few souvenirs in a gift shop, I had the brilliant idea of asking the lady behind the counter where the Red Light District was, so that "I knew which area of the city to avoid". Well, clearly, she saw right through my BS as she walked me to the door and gave us street by street directions on how to get to the center of the Red Light.

Outside of the Rijksmuseum

The Red Light District was unlike anything I'd seen in my life. Women, of ALL ages, are just standing inside these windows looking to solicit some "business".  (This would also be the second time of the day I regretted my outfit, as black leather was far too common in this area.) On our first walk through, Stevi was gripping my arm like she was in a haunted house and one of the women were going to jump out at her with a fake chainsaw. But soon after, we were both amazed and found ourselves with about 500 questions about what goes on in there. We even contemplated paying the 50 euros for a 20 minutes sit down with one of these gals to pick their brains, but couldn't fathom taking the walk of shame out of one one of those doors. Instead, we preferred just shaking our head in disapproval at every man that came out. Something tells me they weren't just in there to get the details we were yearning for.

Ohh the coffee shops.. an interesting destination even if you aren't participating in the festivities.

After feeling like we needed to shower simply by walking through the RLD, we decided to go visit the Anne Frank House to provide our brains with some sort of stimulation after the debauchery we had witnessed all afternoon. It was an amazing experience to actually be in that house and see how they hid in silence for all of those years. And again, for the third time of the day, I was regretting my outfit choice as my pants were swishing in the complete silence of people, many of whom were extremely emotional, touring Anne Frank's home. Next time I'm wearing flats and tights.

Anne Frank's Diary.. what an incredible experience

After our long day in Amsterdam, we spent Saturday traveling to Holland with Luke's team for another one of his games. They won (again) and I'm starting to feel like I'm the good luck charm. On Sunday, we went to Ghent, another city in Belgium where all of the buildings look like they are straight out of Harry Potter. It was here that I would have my first Belgian Waffle and realize my life would never be the same. On Monday, we spent the day in Antwerp which was also amazing. The Antwerp Central Station is an incredible building and the shopping was to die for.

The crew in Antwerp

Overall, my trip was wonderful. Belgium is one of my new favorite countries and I'll definitely be back visiting them again this year.

I came back home to Vilnius Tuesday evening and soon realized Lithuania made the decision to skip Fall altogether  I'm already cold and it isn't even October yet. Pray for me.